He spoke with Christian Klemash, the author of “How to Succeed in the Game of Life: 34 Interviews with the World’s Greatest Coaches.”

The book also includes quotes from Bobby Bowden, Scotty Bowman, Joe Torre, John Wooden and the late Bill Walsh.

Here are some excerpts of the conversation with Parcells:

How would you define success?

“That’s pretty easy for me. I would say that success is never final, but failure can be. In my business, success is never going to satisfy anybody. It’s only a temporary gratification. They’re gonna want more. So I’ve learned to deal with that. You have to forward. No matter what you achieve, you’ve gotta move forward. It’s gotta be onward and upward because it’s not final. You can go from being pretty successful to pretty downtrodden and you can do it very quickly, particularly in this business.”

Who was your childhood hero and why?

“When I was young, baseball was the preeminent sport at the time, along with horse racing and boxing. Football and basketball were not primary sports when I was a 10-year-old. So I would have to say, being in the New York area, that Willie Mays was the guy that I thought about the most, that I saw and witnessed. He was a young player coming up right there in the early fifties. You know, I was about 10 years old. He was my guy. He was the best player I ever saw.”

What was the best advice you were ever given?

“Probably the best advice I was ever given was from my dad. He said, ‘One of the more difficult things to do is decide what you want. But decide what you want to do and then be willing to persist until you give yourself the best chance to achieve that.’ In other words, he was talking about something I use with my teams all the time — staying power — to have instant gratification; that’s not what you should be expecting.”

Can you give me an example of how you overcame adversity?

“The thing that happened to me happened pretty much all at once. I was named the head coach of the Giants in 1983, and that first year things went very, very poorly, including some tragic things in my personal life. Both of my parents died within a six-month period during that year. My mom died during the season; my father right after the season. A guy that I had driven to work with every day for almost six years, a coach that I had coached with in college named Rich Doughery, was killed in a plane crash. Then one of my assistant coaches with the Giants, a fellow named Bob Ledbetter, had a stroke and died. And this was all during a season that was going very poorly. Then after the season, I found out that the organization was looking around at another coach. And from one year — which, quite frankly, retrospectively now, after what they’d seen — I really don’t blame then. But I did blame them at the time. But I did get another chance, fortunately, to continue. And then I just altered the way I did things from that point on. I became much more focused, much more determined, much more aggressive, with much more of me trying to impose my will on the situation. And it worked for me. It worked. Things started going a lot better then. That was probably the low point for me.”

What is the most important quality for success?

“Integrity. You can’t (B.S.) yourself, excuse the language. You need to have integrity. You know I read something about Warren Buffett one time where he said that having intelligence and ambition without integrity will kill you. I think you have to be honest and forthright. I just think that’s important.”

How would you relate money to success?

“Money’s a very relative thing. It’s a tool for me; it’s a vehicle for comfort. It’s not anything that I deem to be on par with achievements. I don’t think that it’s relative to achievement. Now, I know that a lot of people feel like it is, but I don’t. I don’t think it’s a real reflection of anything to do with success. I talk to my teams a lot about it. I say, ‘This game can give you a lot of comforts. It can make you famous, it can make you wealthy. But it can’t give you championships. It can’t give you the pinnacle. You have to earn that.’ It’s much different on that front because there’s a certain commitment that’s involved to do those things. And I know a lot of people that are wealthy, only by good fortune. Some of them get lucky, some of them inherited it, you know. Some of them hit the lottery. Does that make the guy successful?”

“Intelligence and ambition without integrity will kill you”. I wish that were true, but unfortunately, it’s not. One need not look very far to see the many politicians, celebrities, athletes, etc who have managed to go pretty far with the first two traits while lacking the last. Not every successful a..hole ends up like Bernie Madoff or O.J. Simpson. I think a more accurate statement would be “Intelligence and ambition without integrity will kill others.”

My Daddy a pimp, ho. I don’t care what you say, he made it without any Intelligence, ambition, or integrity. Come to think of it, he reminds me of my new boss, Jerry.. Maybe that is why I am a Cowboy now.. Things that make you go, hmmmmmmmm

Oh my God Parcels acutally talked to a press guy? What did we do to deserve this great honor?I don’t care how good he is. As a owner I would never keep on a guy who is not fan friendly and dosen’t talk to the press. I can find another guy who does. He is a typical Jersey guy, rude and nasty.

The most successful people in the world in all walks of life relate to perseverance. (The Tuna used the word “staying power.”) Churchill gave one of the most simplest speeches at a college graduation commencement, “Never give up! Never give up! Never give up!”

I agree that the lack of integrity will kill you. Our nation is going through crisis right now because our people are willing to settle for leadership that is devoid of character and integrity. And I’m not just talking about government (Democrat, Republican, other party, judges, law enforcement, or bureaucrat), but business leaders, professionals (whether in medicine, science, law, psychology, accounting, economics, etc), labor organizations, clergy of different faiths (even atheists), today’s media (makes Pravda and Joseph Goebbels look more honest), our schools and universities (who don’t teach ethics), and the breakup of families (that really messes up children).

A lot of the critics who anonymously run their “smack” ought to take Teddy Roosevelt’s advice about critics. These are the real losers and failures in life that are the potential Adolf Hitlers and Joseph Stalins of the world.

You personify stupidity. To make a statement that the Dolphins haven’t really improved since Tuna got here shows that you must be hanging on to the last brain cell you have left with a choke hold.

Tuna inherited a team that was 1-15.

The next year they were 11-5, after some good free agency pickups, solid draft, a softer schedule and some close wins. Still, 10 more wins than previous year, TIED AN NFL RECORD.

Last year, while the record was worse, they still made strides. Our run game is among the best in the game. O-Line is solid. Henne and our corners gained valuable experience.Oh yeah, and they swept your Jets.

This year they add Nolan, Danbsy and Marshall, along with bringing back Penny, which is a great move (btw, how was it watching him put the nail in the coffin in the Jets back in ‘08?) They also draft all defense, so that will be significantly better.

This team is on the rise, and will be a contender this year and in the future, because they have one of the YOUNGEST TEAMS IN THE LEAGUE.

Tuna is building a team that will have staying power. Gonna be interesting to see the Jets try and hold on to all their free agent additions, especially with half of their core players not showing up to OTA’S because of contract disputes.

Revis island is currently on foreclosure.

Meanwhile the Dolphins are a TEAM that continues to get better.

They say arguing with a fool makes you a fool, but this was fun.

You make ripping on Jets fans easy.

Thank you for that.

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About the author

MIKE BERARDINO is still living the dream he first hatched as a young boy growing up in South Florida in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He’s writing about sports for a living. Best of all, he’s doing it in a now-crowded South Florida sports landscape teeming with talent, passion and, yes, sometimes even controversy. As the newest sports columnist at the Sun Sentinel, where he’s worked since February 1998, most recently as a Dolphins beat writer, Mike will draw on his many experiences over the years covering virtually every major sport and event. You name it, he’s been on the scene: World Series, Summer and Winter Olympics, Super Bowls, NBA Finals, NCAA Final Fours, BCS Championships, Wimbledon, the Masters, NASCAR Sprint Cup and on and on. Talk about living the dream. And now, with this new role and a daily blog forum for his many ideas and opinions, it just keeps getting better.